Brad Pitt Made "Conscious Change" to Stop Using Drugs, Talks Happy Family Life With Angelina Jolie

But, he hasn't always been the family man he is today. In an interview in Esquire's June/July issue, the World War Z star opens up about his history with drugs and why he decided to move forward with his life.

"For a long time I thought I did too much damage—drug damage," he says. "I was a bit of a drifter. A guy who felt he grew up in something of a vacuum and wanted to see things, wanted to be inspired. I followed that other thing. I spent years f--king off. But then I got burnt out and felt that I was wasting my opportunity."

Now, the 49-year-old father of six is proud of the direction he's taken his life in. "I have a handful of close friends and I have my family and I haven't known life to be any happier," he says. "I'm making things. I just haven't known life to be any happier.

"I always thought that if I wanted to do a family, I wanted to do it big," he says. "I wanted there to be chaos in the house...There's constant chatter in our house, whether it's giggling or screaming or crying or banging. I love it. I love it. I love it. I hate it when they're gone. I hate it. Maybe it's nice to be in a hotel room for a day—–‘Oh, nice, I can finally read a paper.' But then, by the next day, I miss that cacophony, all that life."